


Kenopsia

by redtopaz



Category: Twilight Zone, Yuri!!! on Ice (Anime)
Genre: 2017 Skate America, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Canon Relationships, Drama, Established Relationship, F/M, Figure Skating Mystery Boys, Gen, M/M, Mystery, Other, Post-Season/Series 01, Romance, Science Fiction, Season/Series 01, Supernatural Elements, Suspense, Weirdness, spookiness
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-09-22
Updated: 2018-04-15
Packaged: 2019-01-03 22:24:02
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 10,284
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12156024
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/redtopaz/pseuds/redtopaz
Summary: The eve of Skate America 2017, the world stops in an abrupt eruption of horrible noise. When pro figure skater Yuuri Katsuki wakes up, he's seemingly alone in a completely empty hotel with no way out.---Or, the story I wrote because I like Twilight Zone and Yuri!!! on Ice and thought that for some reason they'd be fun together.





	1. The Eve of Skate America

It was on a Wednesday, two days before the start of Skate America, that the world came to a deafening end. 

The day had started in a perfectly ordinary fashion, if you happened to be a top international figure skater. Yuuri and Victor had woken up early and taken a very, very long flight to L.A., then changed planes and taken a shorter (but not short) flight to New York. Yuuri hadn't managed to sleep more than a few hours the whole trip. Victor, of course, had slept like a baby to Yuuri's great envy.  

Getting to the hotel and checked in was another exhausting process, and by the time early afternoon (the next day) came around, the only thing Yuuri really wanted was to sleep. He had hardly set down his suitcase in the room when his phone erupted in a riot of text messages. Someone –oh, Phichit, duh—had started a group chat and was trying to get everyone together at the hotel lounge bar.  

It'd taken a little convincing, as Yuuri'd mostly wanted to just fall asleep after the long flight, but Victor assured him that staying up would help with the jetlag. Yuuri didn't think getting wasted at the hotel bar was going to do anything for his jetlag, but didn't say so. In the end, he was, as usual, helpless against Victor's pretty blue eyes and they both went down to the bar together.  

Chris, Phichit, and Leo were already gathered at the bar, Chris flirting at the beleaguered bartender while Phichit showed Leo something on his phone. They all had beers, which raised an eyebrow since Yuuri was pretty certain Leo was underage in this country.  

"Victor!" 

"Yuuri!" 

Chris and Phichit both called out to them, Phichit waving enthusiastically despite being only twenty feet away. Yuuri smiled, returning Phichit's bro-hug with far less awkwardness than usual. Being back in America together had them both sliding into the habits they'd picked up in Detroit.  

Anticipating a larger group, they moved the party to a set of lounge couches, Victor ordering a beer for himself while Yuuri asked for coffee. Phichit immediately started in on details of the rink renovations going on in Bangkok, Yuuri nodding along as alertly as possible. The coffee helped and he gradually began to feel like a person again.  

Sara eventually joined them, sans Michele who had been left behind in Italy, and, to everyone's irritation, JJ and Isabella stumbled across them as well.  

They weren't all people Yuuri would call friends, but the group was something he was starting to think of as "the regular crowd." The only ones missing were... 

"So, Victor, where are the rest of the Russians?" JJ asked. Victor shrugged, raising his hands in a "beats me" gesture.  

"I'm not assigned to Skate America this year," Victor said, "so I don't really know." 

Sara shot him a bemused look and said, "Wait. If you're not assigned here, then what are you _doing_ here?"  

"Coaching, of course!" Victor threw his arm around Yuuri's shoulder, pulling the man into his side. Yuuri grinned into his coffee.  

"Is that what they're calling it these days?" Chis waggled his eyebrows at them.  

"Oh, right!" Leo said, leaning forward in his seat. "I heard you were still coaching, but I didn't think it was actually, y'know, happening since you're competing, too." 

"Yeah, how is that working out, Victor?" Chris asked, propping his chin on his hand and batting his lashes. Victor's smile became sharp.  

"Perfectly."  

Yuuri took a long sip from his coffee. "Coaching" was a bit of an overstatement for what he and Victor were doing. They'd really devolved to more of a rinkmates mentoring relationship, although Victor still wrote their workouts and oversaw Yuuri's progress. Yuuri was doing his own choreography, though. Partly because he'd always wanted to try his hand at it, and partly because there was no way in Hell he was going to let the competition design his program.  

The reality was, there really weren't enough hours in the day for Victor to coach Yuuri and focus on being Grand Prix competitive. In the end, Victor wound up mostly just abusing Yakov's good will while the elder man did his best to coach long-distance with Victor only occasionally returning to train in Russia. 

"Wooooow," Sara said. She looked between Victor and Yuuri with a highly skeptical expression. "That sounds insane." 

"That's because it is insane." Yuuri looked over his shoulder at the voice, recognizing the scathing tones of the world's angriest Russian scarecrow.  

"Yurio!" Victor cried. The man jumped to his feet and folded the teen in a hug over the back of the couch before the kid could duck away. Yuri managed to plant an elbow in Victor's kidneys as revenge.

Yuuri had to do a double-take to realize the person standing slightly behind Yuri was Otabek. The Kazak skater was a shadowy, stone-faced surprise given his dislike for socializing. Yuuri guessed that last year's GPF winner, currently making angry cat noises at Victor, was the only reason Otabek had deigned to join them at all. 

 _"Privet!"_ Mila called, swanning in behind Yuri and Otabek. She dropped herself down next to Sara on the sofa and signaled the bartender.  

Yuri, having fought off Victor, hurled himself down on one of the empty arm chairs and kicked his foot up on the table. Otabek took the chair next to Yuri, instantly adopting an expression of intense boredom.  

Phichit took the opportunity to snap several group selfies, even coaxing Otabek into turning his face toward the camera for a few. 

"You can't coach and compete at the same time," Yuri was saying. "Any _idiot_ ," with a sharp look at Victor, "would know that." 

The smile Victor gave him was both saccharine and sarcastic.  

"Well, Yurio, maybe most people can't..." 

"Yuuri, what do you think?" Phichit asked. He leaned over to show Yuuri his collection of new selfies, thumbing through his favorites. "This one or... this one?" 

Yuuri considered the options and opened his mouth to reply. 

A scream-like sound split the air, ripping thought apart in a blast of unearthly noise, tearing the voice straight from Yuuri's throat.

Yuuri screamed. He slammed his hands over his ears in a futile attempt to keep the screeching out. The sound -a long, terrible, unending howl- was like a physical force. Yuuri felt like his throat was constricting, like someone was pressing against his brain from the inside. Others were screaming, too, or at least it looked like they were. Phichit and Leo had curled to the floor in agony. Phichit's mouth was open, his lips moving, but Yuuri could only hear the awful noise. At last, thankfully, the sound of humming filled his ears as his hearing gave way to deafness.  

Panicked, he turned on instinct, seeking out Victor. The man had crumbled into himself, long fingers clasped against his ears. His blue eyes were wide and unfocused.  

Yuuri's sight began to swim.  

He reached out, touching Victor's arm, digging his fingers in the cloth of Victor's jacket. He couldn't see well, but he felt Victor's hand fold over his, a warm and familiar caress.

Yuuri's vision was so dim he could hardly see Victor's face at all. His ears rang.

"Victor," he said.

Everything went black and quiet.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's the Twilight Zone/Yuri!!! on Ice fic no one asked for or wanted, but, oh well, here it is!
> 
> I decided to romanize the foreign languages for two reasons:  
> 1) I am a one (and a bit) language lame-o.  
> 2) When reading a fic, even if I don't know what's being said, I like to know how it's said so that I can imagine it in my head. Hence, romanized scripts.
> 
> And that leads us to:  
> \- "Privet!" means "Hi!" in Russian
> 
> If you spot any language issues, please correct me! I'm operating off highly-suspect internet searches.


	2. The Deserted Hotel Lobby

Yuuri had a splitting headache. His pulse pounded like a drum in his temples and he groaned to feel it stomp away in his head. Like he'd taken a header straight into the rink wall.  

He opened his eyes, squinting at blurry light and vague shapes. He'd been... sleeping? His face was resting on something flat and cool, and he was sitting propped up. For a wild second, he thought he was back in school, having passed out on his desk after another exhausting practice. Yuuri blinked, slowly and uncomprehendingly. He lifted his head, wincing at the pain that shot down his neck. His glasses were askew and his jaw was sore at the hinge. Righting the frames, Yuuri took stock of his surroundings.  

He really was asleep at a desk, just not one he'd ever seen before. The hum of computer fans and air conditioning were blessedly audible, his ears apparently no worse for wear. Fluorescents illuminated the room and he blinked in the light.  

Yuuri was... in the hotel business center? Rows of desks and computers lined the small room. A card on the table informed guests of how to log in to the complimentary system. The English letters on the card wobbled a bit, but Yuuri suspected that had more to do with his eyes than the card.  

Yuuri groaned again and pushed himself away from the desk. He teetered to his feet, rubbing at his temple with the hand not white-knuckling the chairback.  

What had happened? Yuuri looked around the room again, searching. Where was Victor?  

The room was small and obviously empty. Yuuri frowned, and started shuffling toward the door, one hand on the wall for added support.  

"Hello," Yuuri called. He pushed open the door and stepped out into the broad hotel lobby. The lobby looked the same, identical to how it had been, flowers on the tables and luggage sitting on carts. The only thing missing were the people. "Hello?" Yuuri said. His voice echoed in the space. He hesitated in the doorway, brow furrowing. "Hel..." He swallowed, and took two cautious steps into the lobby. He turned in a slow circle. "V-Victor?" 

No response.  

Yuuri shuddered. Making a quick decision, he did his best to run to the bar without tripping, cutting across the abandoned lobby. He burst through a wide archway and hurtled around the next corner, skidding to a stop in the lounge entryway. The couches where they'd all been sitting were exactly the same. The glasses were still there, half-filled, patiently waiting for their owners to return.  

"Victor!" Yuuri shouted. He rushed over to the table. A Chanel handbag was sitting on the couch. He picked it up. Hadn't this been Sara's...? 

"Sara? Anyone?" Yuuri dropped the purse back to the couch and gazed hopefully around. No one responded, and Yuuri found himself just standing there as his mind spun off in all different directions. His head throbbed. Where did everybody go? What should he do?   

"Ugh..."  

Yuuri nearly jumped out of his skin at the sound of a human groan. He spun in the direction of the voice, his heart trying to claw its way out of his throat. There was a high-back armchair faced away from him and as he watched a single slender white hand flopped over the side. The hand's owner had on a black jacket with leopard print cuffs. 

Yuuri ran to him, relief popping the anxiety in his chest like a soap bubble.  

"Yurio," Yuuri said. He hadn't shouted, but his voice sounded unreasonably loud in the space. He rushed around the armchair, greedily drinking in the sight of blond hair and groggy eyes. Yuri blinked dazedly for a breath, and then his chin jerked up in alarm. It was a bad move and Yuri winced, trying to recoil from his own headache. 

"Ow..." The boy scrubbed his hand through loose hair. "What the fuck... Yuuri?" He squinted up at Yuuri, blinking like he was trying to observe the sun. Yuuri approached slowly, aware that startling Yuri was ill-advised even at the best of times. "What the fuck... What was that sound? Where is everyone?"  

Yuuri knelt next to Yuri, unobtrusively checking the kid over for any injuries. Yuri was just as he'd been before the terrible noise, only with an added expression of bewilderment.  

"I... I don't know," Yuuri said. He fixed Yuri with a grim stare. "I woke up in the business center, on the other side of the lobby. Alone. I don't know where... everyone is."  

Yuri blinked at him again, making the effort to scowl through his headache. 

"Did you try calling anyone?" 

Oh. _Oh!_ Yuuri was an idiot. 

"Ah! Not yet. I'll try now." Yuuri fumbled for his phone, relieved to find it still in his pocket. He unlocked it and hit Victor's number. He put it on speaker and they waited for it to connect. A second passed, and another, and another. Yuuri frowned at the phone. Even abroad, his reception usually wasn't this bad. Yuuri hung up and dialed again. 

Nothing. No ring. No answer. No soft click of the phone speaker turning on. Yuuri pulled the phone away from his ear and checked the bars. Full bars, and the phone screen said it was calling, but there wasn't any connection on the other end. Yuuri pulled up LINE and tried messaging Phichit. The message sat there, sent but with no delivery receipt. He switched to Instagram only to find that frozen on the last page he'd visited. Yuuri dialed 9-1-1.  

Nothing, again. No connection, no automated message.  

"My phone's not working," Yuuri said. He looked up from where he'd been focusing on the screen. Yuri had his cell out as well, holding it high above his head and frowning.  

"Mine either. I can't even get internet on the hotel wi-fi." Yuri let his phone drop to his lap. "Where the fuck did everybody go?" Yuri's voice sounded oddly thin. His eyes were darting quickly about in an unusual way. Yuuri tilted his head, considering this unprecedented behavior, when it suddenly struck him. Yuri was scared. 

Sharp sympathy ripped through Yuuri. Though it was something he often forgot, Yuri really was sixteen. Waking up to something like this... Even someone as recklessly brave as Yuri would be shaken. Yuuri took several uneven breaths, in and out.  

"I don't know, but it doesn't matter." He forced a smile. "Because we're going to find them."  

Yuri stared blankly at him for a moment and then nodded his head.  

"Yeah. Yeah, okay." Yuri pushed himself to his feet with far more grace then Yuuri had first managed. He seemed pretty steady, too. "I... where should we start?" 

"Well, Victor might have gone back to the room looking for me. Sara left her purse here, so she might come back for it." Yuuri looked around the deserted lounge. "Ah, let's leave a note, in case others come by, too."  

Yuuri grabbed a pen and napkin from behind the bar and jotted out quick instructions in English. _W_ _ait here and_ _he and Yuri would be back in a bit_. He left it in the middle of the table with their unfinished drinks.  

"Okay, let's go," Yuuri said.  

The vacant lobby was as eerie as it'd been the first time Yuuri crossed it. Yuri must have felt the same way since he kept close enough to brush shoulders. They went to the elevators and hit the button. Yuuri had a minute to think about whether this was the kind of emergency where they should be taking the stairs, but the elevator arrived without fuss and he decided to get on. He punched the button for his floor. 

"This is so fucking weird," Yuri said. Yuuri couldn't help but agree.  

The elevator doors opened and the Yuris stepped out into another empty hallway. Yuri froze two steps out, staring wide-eyed at the still corridor, his nostrils flaring with every inhale. 

"I saw a movie like this once. There was a guy with an axe and the whole hotel was filled with creepy ghosts," Yuri said. Yuuri hadn't seen that movie, but it wasn't sounding like something he'd like.  

"It was probably an evacuation. We just got left behind," Yuuri said, trying to gently reassure the teen. This was obviously a deeply flawed supposition, but Yuri didn't complain.  

"Think so?" was the carefully nonchalant reply. Quietly, Yuuri let out a relieved sigh. They started walking, each keeping an ear and eye out for any sign of life.  

"Could be," Yuuri said. 

"Like a fire evacuation? Wouldn't there be firefighters?" 

"I don't know. I just remember that noise..." 

"Like when you get a mic too close to the speaker and it makes that _eeeerch_ sound. But worse. Like the speaker was inside your head." 

"Mm. Maybe that's what it was? A feedback noise over the hotel intercom?" Yuuri said.  

"Maybe." 

They reached Yuuri and Victor's room and Yuuri got the card key out. The lock worked and the door opened with a gentle creak.  

The room was dark, the way they'd left it that afternoon. Yuuri felt a sudden swell of gratitude that Makkachin hadn't made the trip with them this time. He flipped the lights and let Yuri in. Yuuri's SP costume was still laid out on the bed, blue rhinestones glittering in the artificial light. Victor's laptop was plugged in on the desk. Yuri instantly went over to it and tapped it on. 

"It's working. What's Victor's password?" 

"5WC5GPF. All caps," Yuuri replied. There was a beat. 

"Ugh! That smug asshole." Yuri typed it in, muttering unkind things in Russian. He clicked around on the computer while Yuuri examined the room for missing or disturbed belongings. "Well, the computer works, but the internet doesn't. It just opens the home page and freezes." Yuri slammed the laptop shut with excessive force. "Useless!"  

Yuuri unzipped Victor's luggage and began going through the contents, not really expecting anything unusual. 

"If you break that, you have to replace it," Yuuri said. 

"Like I'm fucking worried about that right now." 

Yuuri sighed, long and heavy, and zipped the luggage back up. He glanced out the window. The streetlights were coming on and the alarm clock said it was just after five, but there wasn't a single car driving on the roads. Yuuri frowned and looked away.  

"We should go back down and check the bar again. Someone might've come back."  

Yuri petulantly kicked the desk leg, sending the top lip slamming into the wall, and Yuuri had to squash the urge to roll his eyes.  

They left a note on the door for Victor or anyone else, directing them down to the lounge bar. The trip back was as lonely as the trip up had been. Yuuri and Yuri didn't talk the whole way down, each twisted up in their own private thoughts.  

The bar was still empty. Sara's bag and the note were where they'd left them.  

" _Eto_..." Yuuri began. He stopped and looked around helplessly.  

Yuri was mutely glaring daggers at the affronting glass table as if the force of his gaze alone would force it to reveal its secrets. The sun was setting, turning the outside sky pink and purple. The street entirely devoid of pedestrians or vehicles. Yuuri squinted at it. He couldn't even see any pigeons. The creeping dread came back in full to cramp his stomach and rake at his chest.  

"C'mon, Yuuri. Let's get the fuck out of here."  

Yuri spun on his booted heel and stormed out of the lounge. Yuuri hurried after him. The teen stomped across the lobby and up to the revolving doors. Scowling he reached his arm out and shoved against the bar.  

The door didn't budge.  

Startled, Yuri rocked back and stared at the door. He reached out again and pushed, this time with both hands and his full weight against the bar and glass. The door didn't even wobble. Yuri pressed his back into it and pushed. It was as if someone had painted a brick wall to be the perfect imitation of a revolving door. Yuri stepped back to regard the door with clear dismay, older Yuuri watching on in mute terror.  

The teen rallied and went to attempt another door. He pushed against it. Then pulled. He hit the handicap button. 

The door didn't open. Yuri went to the next door over. It was closed, too. 

"What the fuck is this?" Yuri muttered. He kicked the door with his toe. He squared his weight, and kicked it again with the flat of his foot. "What the fuck?! What the fuck it this!" He kicked the door again and again and again. The glass door refused to even ripple under the impact. "Let me the fuck out of here. What the fuck is this!" He screamed and started beating on the door with his fists. He slammed his shoulder into the glass. The shout he let out was pure frustrated rage.  

Yuri jumped a few steps back, winding up for a running tackle. In a flash, Yuuri threw his arms around him, physically holding the screaming teen back.  

"Yuri! Stop!"  

"Fucking—Fuck you! Let me go, you second-rate loser! Let me go!"  

Even shaking with distress, Yuuri didn't have any problem holding him back. The teen was maybe 55 kg in the rain, and while it may have all been solid muscle, Yuuri was also an athlete with the additional advantages of mass and a fully-grown body. Held firmly, Yuri wasn't going anywhere. Eventually, Yuri himself realized this and stopped fighting.  

Even once Yuri'd stilled, Yuuri still didn't let go. His arms trembled where they wrapped around the teen's slim shoulders. Yuuri's whole body was shaking. He clung to the kid like he was driftwood in a storm.  

Yuri panted, fighting to get his breath under him. He stared at the entryway, at the doors that may as well have been made from stone. He looked down at Yuuri's arm across his chest and realized his own hand was clutching fiercely at the man's wrist in turn.  

"Are you crying?" Yuri tried for scathing, but the warble in his voice made it sound like he was the one about to cry. Yuuri shook his head, leaning his forehead against Yuri's fluffy blond hair.  

"No. I'm sorry." 

They stood like that for a moment more, their quick breaths echoing through the polished lobby. 

Eventually, slowly, Yuuri untangled his arms from around the young man. Yuri swiftly dropped his hand away as well. Yuuri stumbled over to one of the fancy armchairs decorating the lobby floor and collapsed into it. His head hung between his shoulders as he clasped his hands together. His foot jogged against the floor. Yuri walked up to the pane of glass trapping them in and placed his hand against it.  

The sound of a door slamming made them both jump.  

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Language:   
> "Eto" is essentially "Umm" or something you say when you're not sure what to say next.


	3. The Unbreakable Glass

Yuri whipped around, eyes wide, back flat against the glass, while Yuuri leapt to his feet.

There were footsteps, several pairs, echoing from the hall leading to the conference rooms. They were coming closer. Then there were voices.

"It's this way."

The voice was male, grating, and achingly, wonderfully familiar. The two skaters made eye-contact.

"JJ!" They shouted nearly in unison.

There was a pause, and then the sound of footsteps running. Yuuri and Yuri took off running as well. As the rounded the corner leading to the hall, Yuuri could see two people running down the corridor to meet them. The figures passed under one of the hall lights and Yuuri let out a sound that lived somewhere between pain and joy.

"Yuuri!"

Yuuri threw his arms wide and let Victor slam into him, knocking them both back a step. Victor's arms closed around him like a trap and Yuuri wrapped his own arms around Victor's neck, pulling them flush.

"Yuuri! Yuuri!"

"Victor!"

Yuuri could feel Victor shudder. Yuuri clung tighter, burying his nose in the nape of Victor's neck.

" _Daijoubu?_ " Yuuri whispered. Victor took a shuddering breath and nodded.

Yuri was staring at them both, looking almost lost, while JJ eagerly searched around the room.

"Isabella? Izzy, are you here?" He was calling. He rounded on Yuri, startling the teen back a step. "Is Isabella with you? Have you seen her?"

Yuuri looked up from Victor's shoulder, loosing his death grip just a little.

"We haven't seen anyone else, yet," Yuuri answered. JJ’s hopeful expression crumbled, like a candle guttering out. "I'm sorry. But if you're here, then she might be somewhere nearby, too."

Victor pressed his lips to Yuuri's temple and Yuuri leaned in to the touch, fingers digging in to his shoulders. Victor lingered for a long moment, then pulled away, Yuuri reluctantly letting him go.

Victor turned, covered the distance to Yuri in two long strides, and grabbed the unresisting teen by the shoulders, looking him over with a sharp eye.

" _Y_ _a rada, chto ty v poryadke,_ " Victor said. Yuri, arms dangling, too overwhelmed to do much of anything, nodded.

" _Ya tozhe_ ," Yuri replied.

Victor nodded in turn, squeezed the teen’s shoulders once, and let go. Yuuri was at Victor's side in an instant, not touching, but close enough to brush elbows. Victor immediately looped his arm around Yuuri's shoulders, pulling the slighter man in. Yuuri leaned in to his side, soaking up the warmth of Victor's body through his jacket.

"Have you found anyone else?" Yuuri asked. He looked up at Victor, but it was JJ who answered.

"Just Nikiforov. I woke up in the penthouse, of all places. Couldn't find a single other person. Izzy's completely disappeared. Ran down to our room, but she wasn't there either. I found Victor wandering around the eighth floor, and we decided to come back down to the lounge since that's the last place we saw Izzy and you."

"Do you know what the hell is going on?" Yuri asked. He seemed to have regained a bit of his usual bluster. Yuuri privately wondered if he was putting up a good front for Victor.

Victor and JJ both shook their heads. JJ scowled, fists balling at his side.

"Whoever's idea of a prank this is, they're really going to get it when I get my hands on them," JJ muttered. The glint in his eyes said he was serious about it, too.

"Did you guys find a way out?" Yuri asked. He sounded hopeful, edging on desperate. Victor shot him a look of surprise.

"Other than through the front doors?" Victor asked.

The Yu(u)ris exchanged a dark glance.

"We're locked in," Yuuri said.

"What?!"

They spent the next ten minutes hammering on the doors in turn. Victor and JJ both tried their strength against the glass, but neither could get so much as a vibration of result. Then the group turned to trying to break the glass. Chairs, coat racks, metal mop handles... Nothing made the glass bow or chip. It didn't even look scratched afterwards. The only thing they successfully managed to do was smudge handprints over the windows.

"Is this freaking hurricane glass?" JJ yelled. He chucked a heavy stone bust at the window and watched it bounce harmlessly off. The statue did chip the shiny tiled floor where it landed, though.

"Maybe we could try a skate. Or a knife," Yuri suggested.

"There's probably maintenance tools somewhere," JJ said.

"This is unreal," Yuuri muttered.

"I feel like I'm in a horror movie," JJ said. He was gazing from the chipped tile to the pristine window and back to the chipped tile. Victor noticed what had JJ so fascinated and then they both stared at the chipped tile.

JJ gave up on the doors and windows in favor of pacing around the lobby. Victor crouched down by the cracked tile and motioned Yuuri over to show him, too. The stone bust had taken a thumb sized chunk out of the floor. Looming above the cracked floor, the unmarked glass seemed to gain a fresh, wholly sinister quality.

 Victor and Yuuri shared a spooked glance.

"Isabella!" JJ shouted. Yuri shot him a scathing glare.

"Fuck! If she was here she'd have heard us already. Stop yelling like that!"

"ISABELLA!"

"JJ, calm down! We'll find Isabella soon," Victor said.

"Up yours, Victor. Like you'd be waiting even a second longer if we hadn't found Yuuri."

"Okay, okay!" Yuuri said. He stepped between Victor and JJ, hands up. "Let's go look for Isabella and the others now. We're not getting through the glass anyway, and it'll still be here when we get back."

The idea of splitting up to cover ground was briefly discussed before being thoroughly vetoed by everyone who wasn't a stressed-out Canadian. The oddness of events --and, as Yuri loudly pointed out, their similarity to that one movie about the hotel axe guy-- made sticking together the only tolerable choice.

Victor hadn't seen the axe guy movie either.

"I'm coaching a skater for the Grand Prix while _also competing in_ the Grand Prix myself. When do you think I have time for movies, Yurio?'

"It's an _old_ movie, like from the '70s. You could have seen it before."

"Are you guys talking about _The Shining_? That's a classic. You really should check it out. Although, the book was way better."

"JJ, you can _read_?"

"Yeah, okay, kid. You're fucking hilarious. Also, that movie is about a man being driven insane by evil ghosts. This is more like _1408_ : guy trapped in a hotel room while the room itself slowly drives him to suicide."

"Alright! Let's please stop talking about horror movies now. Please."

"Fuck you, don't call me ‘kid.’ Unless you're trying to make your GPF humiliation sound even more pathetic."

"Hmm. You know what, _kid_? When your growth spurt kicks in, which it will soon, it's going to destroy your center of balance and coordination. You'll be lucky if you _ever_ get it back. A lot of skaters never recover."

"…"

"…"

"JJ, that was very cruel."

"He started it."

"Yurio is, as you pointed out, sixteen."

"Screw you, too, Yuuri!"

"Ugh. Fine. Sorry. This shit is just... getting to me. Once we find Isabella I'll be able to just take a breath."

"Yurio, you apologize, too."

"Fuck you."

They wandered the hotel halls, ducking heads into rooms and calling out for the others.

The sniping between JJ and Yuri eventually abated, much to Yuuri's unending relief. He wasn't the best arbitrator ever and playing guidance counsellor was the last thing he wanted to do at the moment.

On the third floor, they found the signs for the workout room and decided to try there. Collectively, they'd already hit the lobby, the lounge bar, the business center, the main restaurant, the penthouse, stairwell #3, JJ and Isabella's room on the 8th floor, Yuuri and Victor's room on the 9th floor, and the 8th floor Club room.

The fitness center was small, a windowless one-room affair with a couple treadmills and ellipticals, a rack of free weights and medicine balls, and a mirrored wall.

"Izzy?"

"Well, it doesn't look like anyone's here either," Victor said. He walked around the free weight rack to look in a closet. Just yoga mats, foam rollers, and cleaning supplies. He shut the door.

JJ let out a sound of pure fury and slapped his open palm against the wall. He rested his forehead against it, breathing sharp and fast.

"Why have we not found anyone else?" Yuuri muttered, more to himself than the group. The other three looked at him with varying levels of apprehension. "I mean, this whole hotel and only the four of us are left? And we all happen to know each other? Where did everyone else go and why are we the only ones locked in?"

Only silence answered him.

Yuuri stared down at his feet, raising a hand to scrub it through his un-styled hair. A touch on his shoulder let him know Victor was next to him. He pivoted toward the touch and found himself being wrapped in a hug, which he gratefully returned.

"Maybe we’re dead."

"Give it a rest, JJ," Victor grumbled. He shot the man a very unimpressed look over Yuuri's shoulder. Only, JJ did not look like he was teasing. He was very, very pale.

"No, what if we really are dead? What if this is purgatory?" He sounded genuinely shaken. "I... We died, but we didn’t have last rites and we're not worthy of Heaven yet. That's why Isabella isn't here. She's... Or she could still be alive!" He started pacing, eyes darting, fists curling and uncurling at his side. "She's alive, but we're not. And we all had sin with us when we died, and that's why we're here."

"I'm not fucking dead, and I'm not in purgatory either," Yuri snapped. He crossed his arms over his chest and sneered at JJ. JJ stopped pacing and looked at the teen.

"You... We're both so prideful and selfish. And..." He cast about the room, landing on Yuuri and Victor. "And you two are sodomites..."

Right. Yuuri'd had enough of this. Stepping out of Victor's arms he pulled back his open palm and let it fly right across JJ's stupid freaked-out face. JJ reeled with the impact, bringing a hand up to clutch at his red cheek.

There was a beat, a single moment of breath, and then the room went dark.

The lights went out so quickly that it left Yuuri reeling with vertigo. There was a terrified, choked-off whine from Yuuri's left and he realized with a jolt that it must have come from the younger Yuri.

"Yurio? Are you OK?" Yuuri asked, barely speaking above a whisper.

"Y-Yuuri? Y-yeah. I'm fine, of course. What about you guys?" Yuri's voice was trembling, despite his attempt to hide it.

Something bumped into Yuuri's shoulder and he let out a choked shriek of his own, jumping away from whatever it was.

"Yuuri? Yuuri, it's me," Victor said. "It's just me."

"What the fuck are you two doing?" Yuri's voice hitched over the swear.

Yuuri reached out blindly, hand smacking in to something warm and solid. He immediately dug his fingers in and realized he must have hold of Victor's shirt. Yuuri made a noise of relief in his throat. He felt Victor's hand at his shoulder.

And then the lights flickered back on, like someone had merely flipped the switch. The fluorescents flickered for a moment before gradually brightening to their full glow. Victor's drawn face was the first thing Yuuri saw and he watched as the worry melted from his features in the light.

"Shit," Yuri hissed. "JJ? Where the fuck is JJ?"

Yuuri whipped his head around to look, but Yuri was right. JJ had vanished.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not trying to character-assassinate poor JJ. Even though YOI is supposed to exist in a world without homophobia, I really just can't wrap my head around that. So, I made JJ a teensey bit homophobic on a subconscious level, mostly stemming from his religious beliefs. (Sorry, JJ fans! He's not a bad person, just a little narrow-minded here.)


	4. The Once-Bustling Kitchen

Yuuri hunched over, knees drawn to his chest, hands tangled in his hair. His heart was trying to beat out of his chest. They'd lost JJ, or he'd been taken, or _something_. The arrogant jerk was gone, but at that moment Yuuri would have done anything to see his cocky face again.

They'd searched the surrounding halls. They'd gone upstairs to look in his room. They'd gone all the way back to the lounge bar, but JJ hadn't been any of those places. It was there Yuuri had just given in to panic, sat down, and refused to move.

Yuri wasn't much better. He was pacing wildly, muttering in Russian and jumping at every shadow. Anything that got in his path was at risk, the teen kicking any chair, table leg, or garbage bin that crossed him. He was practically vibrating, but Yuuri couldn't tell if it was more from fear or anger.

Victor was trying to calm them both down.

"If we have a good outlook, then we have a better chance of finding JJ. Now is not the time for moping," Victor said. His words had the faintest whiff of lecture about them, and Yuri rounded on him like he was getting ready for a fight.

"Moping? Is that what this looks like, Victor? I'm just having a little pity-party over here? Boo-hoo-hoo, everyone I know is gone and probably _dead!_ We're locked in a stupid hotel where _we'll_ probably die! But don't mind me being so dramatic!" Yuri snatched one of the half-finished glasses off the coffee table and pitched it at Victor's head. It went wide, smashing into the floor, spewing glass shards and beer.

The crash startled Yuuri, who reacted by flinching and curling tighter in on himself.

Victor hovered between them, as if he couldn't decide which bomb he should be defusing.

Yuri raged, tearing around the room with the energy of a berserker. Victor switched tacks and went to Yuuri instead. He crouched by his lover's side, placing a hand on his back.

"You can't do this right now, Yuuri," he urged. "I need you to be an adult. We have to be strong and take care of Yurio." His voice was too low for Yuri to hear, but Yuuri heard him just fine and reacted by starting to shake.

"Yuuri, please," Victor said, rubbing his hand over Yuuri's back. "Yurio, stop! You're not helping anything by trashing the room."

"Fuck. You. Old. Man." A vase pitched to the floor with a resounding thud, but didn't break.

"Yuuri. Yuuri, please, talk to me. You must get up."

"He wants to lay down and die? Let him do it. Apparently, we can just disappear to nowhere at any moment anyway. Who gives a shit if he doesn't get up?"

" _Zamolchi!_ "

"Ooh, are you angry, Victor? What happened to your _good outlook_?" Yuri flung his arms wide, teeth bared in a sneer. Yuuri quietly started to cry. Victor abandoned arguing with Yuri to focus on consoling his fiancé.

"Yuuri, it's not all that bad. JJ is fine. We just got split up in the power outage. We'll find him again, and the others, like we did before. Please, please don't cry. You know I'm not good with that."

"Yeah, pig! Just get over it! Mila and Otabek are in the next room having piroshki. JJ definitely isn't dead in a closet somewhere. Shit! Somebody probably already came and unlocked the front doors. Everything's fucking fine!"

Yuuri wrapped his arms around his head and buried his face in his knees. Hot tears trickled down his cheeks and chin. He wanted to go home. He closed his eyes and tried to picture the rink at Ice Castle. He would wake up and he'd be back in Japan. Victor would already be up and they'd go down to the rink and start morning practice. Maybe the Nishigori's would join them for lunch afterwards. All this was just a sick dream. He'd wake up any second to the sound of Makkachin barking in the yard.

"Yurio, where are you going?" Victor shouted, half-rising to his feet, torn again between staying with Yuuri or chasing after the teen.

"I can't stay here anymore!"

"Wait! We should stay together, remember? What if you..." Victor cut himself off, as if even voicing the thought was intolerable. It did have the desired effect, for Yuri wavered at the doorway, the anger bleeding from his face along with his color. "Just wait for a moment. We'll get Yuuri up and then we'll all leave together," Victor promised. Yuri swallowed thickly and nodded, hovering in the door as if to remind Victor that he still might flee at any second.

"Yuuri, you have to stand up. I'm also happy to sweep you off your feet for a bit, but we're all pretty tired so even I may not be able to last long." Yuuri raised his face, gazing at Victor from behind tear-fogged glasses. The man had a soft, private smile on his face, the kind that made Yuuri feel like nothing else in the world could possibly be more important than that smile. "Can you stand?" Victor asked, stroking a hand across the back of Yuuri's neck. Yuuri thought about, then nodded. Even with bags under his eyes, the smile Victor gave him was like the sun.

Yuuri got his feet under him with Victor's help. Emotional exhaustion always made him feel like a baby deer for the first few minutes. Eventually, his body would remember its strength and he'd be back to moving with his usual grace.

Yuri was watching him the way one might watch a wooden crate of TNT. The answering frown Yuuri offered was somber. He didn't have the energy or the ability to try and assuage someone else's unease.

"Well, where are we going?" Yuuri asked, voice hoarse. He looked expectantly at the two Russians. Yurio made a face. It was clear the teen didn't have an answer other than "away from here."

"We should try more of the emergency exits," Victor said. He was hovering at Yuuri's elbow as if he suspected he might have to catch him. "We haven't been to the wing with the conference rooms. One of the doors down there might be open."

The furrow in Yuri's brow deepened. He went over to the wall and pried the hotel evacuation plan map from behind it's plastic casing. He brandished it at the pair.

"We'll mark the ones we've tried off, so we don't forget and repeat," Yuri said. He went behind the bar and rooted for a pen. Victor nodded.

"That's a good idea," he said. Yuri smiled very faintly at the praise. Now that they'd all shouted and cried themselves out, emotions were on an evener keel. Yuuri was starting to float in the detached peace hard crying always left him with.

Yuri scratched out the doors they'd already tried, and they counted the ones they'd yet to attempt. They'd missed a door by the fitness center and the exit to the outdoor pool. The restaurant also had an outdoor seating area. The conference wing had three emergency exits, a back entrance, and it looked like the kitchens had a loading dock. All were viable escape options.

Looking at the map of the kitchens reminded Yuuri abruptly of the ache in his stomach.

"I'm so hungry," Yuuri said, gazing wistfully at the map. He had no idea if the kitchens would have food or not, but given their current luck he wasn't holding out much hope.

"Of course you are, pig," Yuri reflexively jabbed, just as his own stomach gave a loud, long gurgle.

Victor smiled, looking immensely relieved that something like normalcy had asserted itself.

"Then we will eat dinner first," he said.

There was a staff corridor connecting the bar to the kitchen, so it was short work finding their way. Though he should have been expecting it, the sight of the kitchen still brought Yuuri up short. Rather than the clean, untouched area he'd pictured in his head, the kitchen too looked like it had been abandoned mid-service. All of the burners were off, but pots of stock and pans of half-done veggies lay on the stove top, patiently awaiting the sous-chef's return.

The signs of abandonment for such a demanding, time-sensitive activity sent fresh chills all down the back of Yuuri's spine. You couldn't just leave food like this in a professional setting. This was how you made customers sick! No self-respecting manager or chef would have allowed their kitchen to be left like this.

"It really must have been an emergency," Yuuri mumbled. Given the state of the kitchen, there must have been a fire or some other disaster that would demand immediate evacuation. No signs of fire or earthquake damage, though. Maybe something else?

"Then they will be back for us," Victor said, laying a comforting hand on Yuuri's shoulder.

"You don't think it was nuclear, maybe?" Yuri asked, brow drawing tight. Victor looked thoughtful, but shook his head.

"We'd be quite dead already if there'd been anything nuclear, Yurio," he said, managing to sound dissonantly chipper about it.

"But what if we're just in the fallout zone and everyone left to get away?" Yuri was on the verge of working himself into panic.

"Our cells and internet would work, and they wouldn't have locked the doors," Yuuri said. Thoroughly exhausted and done with emotional outpourings and hysterical speculation, and wanting to avoid being dragged into it again, he walked to the nearest of the two industrial fridges and started inspecting the contents. Steak, ground beef, fish, chicken, a tub of stock, vegetables of all kinds... He found the pantry and poked his head in.

_"Tabun... Oyakodon?_ Is chicken, egg, and rice okay?"

"Are you cooking, Yuuri?" Victor asked, sounding genuinely joyful for the first time since they'd woken up. Yuuri couldn't help his bashful grin; it was automatic at this point.

"Just something simple," Yuuri demurred.

"Everything you cook is delicious," Victor declared. Yuri was glaring hatefully at them both.

Yuuri cleaned the part of the kitchen he wanted to use, binning the left-out food, and began prepping his work space.

"It'll be about twenty minutes."

"Can I help?" Victor eagerly peered over Yuuri's shoulder at the chicken he was laying out.

"Un. Can you start the rice?"

While Victor set about getting a bot boiling, Yuri hopped up to sit on one of the prep tables, brushing aside a bag of onions to do so. He started kicking his heels against the steel legs. The whole thing had a surreal domesticity to it and Yuuri found himself diving as deeply into the illusion of normalcy as possible. He focused only on cooking, giving instructions to Victor and enduring the intermittent sarcastic lob from Yuri. He started the saucepan, inhaling deeply to catch the scent of onion and soy sauce. No _hondashi,_ so he made a substitute from the stock in the fridge. Yuuri let the rhythm of cooking carry him away.

The dish was simple, but Yuuri didn't think anything had ever looked so appetizing. He hadn't realized just how hungry he'd been. They got glasses and water, bottled since there wasn't any reason not to. There was nowhere to sit in the kitchen, so they went out into the restaurant and ate at the nearest table. Here, too, were the trappings of abrupt abandonment, but Yuuri resolutely focused only on eating his food.

"What time is it?" Yuri asked, slumped back in his chair, bowl picked completely clean. Victor checked his phone.

"A little after nine."

Yuri groaned and rolled his head back to gaze blankly at the ceiling.

"I'm so tired..." He mumbled. Victor and Yuuri exchanged a look. They were running on fumes as well.

"Should we think about getting some sleep and looking for everyone tomorrow?" Yuuri asked, keeping his voice low as if he were discussing a secret. Yuri scowled at the ceiling tiles.

"We don't know where Otabek, or Mila, or anybody else is yet. We don't know where _JJ_ is. We can't sleep." He was owlishly blinking at an overhead light fixture as he said it, giving Yuuri the distinct impression that Yuri most definitely _could_ sleep, but didn't want to.

 "Let's check the conference rooms first," Victor said. "If we find nothing, then we all agree to get some rest and start again tomorrow."

"Okay," Yuri said, sounding as if he was on the verge of sleep already. "We'll check first..."

Yuuri went back into the kitchen to clean up, followed by Victor and Yuri since Victor was refusing to let anyone be alone for more than a second. This became something of an amusing problem when Yuri had to use the restroom.

Fed, watered, and feeling a little more optimistic, the group trekked across the hotel to the conference wing. Here, at least, the rooms looked properly closed rather than abruptly deserted. The emergency exit doors were closed fast, just at the front doors had been. They did find a fire axe and took turns trying to get through the exterior wall with it to absolutely no success. No JJ, Isabella, Otabek, or Phichit. No man, woman, child, pet, or any form of living creature at all. Yuuri was desperately starting to long for the buzz of a house fly.

Yuri kept the axe and refused to put it down. Yuuri and Victor swapped a glance over his head and said nothing.

"We have to keep looking," Yuri said as they made their last futile attempt on the emergency exit door. "The hotel isn't that big. We have to search it all first."

"Yurio," Victor sighed. "There are fourteen stories and two wings. What if we are so tired that we miss something?"

"I want to keep looking, too," Yuuri admitted. "I'm just so tired. I need at least a nap. Why don't we set an alarm and just sleep for a little bit, then get up and keep looking?"

"I don't know how either of you can even talk about sleeping," Yuri snapped at them. "We're trapped in here with no way out and you two want to take a nap?"

"We don't know there's no way out," Victor countered. "And we should really try to get a full night's sleep. Things will look better in the morning and we'll all be more awake to think up solutions."

Yuuri swallowed against the nervous cramping in his stomach and privately thought that he wouldn't be able to sleep much either, even with how tired he already was.

"Maybe Victor and I should just nap while Yurio keeps watch?" He suggested. It sounded like a decent compromise to him. The Russians seemed to think this over and Yuri eventually nodded. Victor, however, wasn't quite ready to let it go.

"But then Yurio will be sleepy all day tomorrow. No, we should all get a full night’s rest." He crossed his arms over his chest and put on his best "Coaching Mode" face. Yuuri bit nervously at the inside of his lip.

"I'm not sure we'll even be able to sleep a whole night. At least, Yurio and I won’t. There's just too much else. Once we have a better idea of what's going on or we've found JJ or someone else, maybe..." Yuuri never had a lot of confidence when it came to contradicting Victor when the man was being stubborn, and he was finding it hard to make eye contact. 

"No," Victor said. "It's best if--"

"Will you listen?" Yuri cut him off. "We," he gestured exaggeratedly between himself and Yuuri, "are not," he held his arms in a large X, "going to sleep," pantomiming sleeping on pressed hands, "a whole night. You can, if you want, but Yuuri and I want to get out of here first."

Victor frowned at him.

"We are going to get out of here, Yurio. There's just no sense in torturing ourselves in the meantime."

Yuri gaped at him in disbelief at Victor's willful optimism. Then he snapped his jaw shut and pursed his lips.

"C'mon, Yuuri. My room's got double beds. I'll set an alarm for a few hours." He grabbed Yuuri by the wrist and, unwilling to cause more drama, Yuuri let him. Yuri whipped back on Victor. "You can do whatever you want, but we'll be upstairs."

Victor sighed, loud and long-suffering.

"Yurio..." he whined. Yuri, towing the exhausted Yuuri behind him, was already halfway out the door. "We can't split up!" Victor rushed to follow them.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you've never had Oyakodon, it is SO good, and medium-easy to make if you don't cook a ton.


	5. An Untouched Meal

Yuuri still felt groggy after the nap, blinking awake to the beep of an alarm. Only about four hours, but longer than they'd intended. Yuri had wordlessly rolled over and reset it when the first alarm had gone off, and they’d both dropped back off to sleep. Victor had been out like a light since hitting the bed, not even the sound of Yuri's phone alarm bothered him.

Yuri stumbled into the bathroom as Yuuri pried Victor’s arm away. Yuuri listened to the sound of pipes and wondered at the power and water remaining on. When Yuri returned with a scrubbed clean face and heavy-lidded eyes, they switched. In the bathroom, Yuuri sniffed his shirt and made a face. They'd have to go by his room for a change. He showered quickly and reluctantly put his dirty clothing back on. When he came out, he shot an envious look at Yuri’s clean jeans and hoodie. Victor slumbered on, breathing heavily against the pillow.

"Should we let him sleep?" Yuuri said. Victor always looked so charming in his sleep. Well, he looked charming doing most things, but in sleep there was a kind of vulnerable innocence that just captivated Yuuri.

Yuri walked over and stared down at Victor's limp form for a moment. Then he answered by kicking the skating star in the leg. Victor snorted, made a half-formed noise of surprise, and sat up on his elbows in alarm.

" _Kakoy?"_ His voice was thick with sleep. He blinked in the dim lamp light and looked over at the two others. He groaned and smashed his face back into the pillow. 

"Get up!" Yuri gripped the blankets and yanked them back. Victor made a wounded noise in protest. "We've slept enough."

Yuuri made an apologetic face when Victor looked his way. Victor sighed, waved it off, and shuffled into the bathroom.

After a stop by Victor and Yuuri's room for fresh clothes and toothbrushes, the group decided to go downstairs again to get food. Yuuri suggested they stop by the bar lounge again.

"Just in case someone came by," he said. Yuri shrugged, tucking the axe he still refused to relinquish into the crook of his arm. Victor looped an arm around Yuuri's shoulder.

"Good idea. I'm sure someone's been through there by now. JJ may even be waiting for us there," Victor said.

Yuuri didn't have high hopes, but he did lean a little into Victor's side, glad of the comforting contact.

They went straight to the bar lounge, deciding to go to the kitchens after through the connecting service corridor.

They were halfway across the lobby, footsteps echoing off the tile, when there was a flurry of scraping sounds and raised voices bouncing back to them. The three skaters froze. Yuuri had just enough time to turn and share a stunned look with Victor when Leo and Phichit came tearing around the corner leading to the bar. Yuuri squinted at them, unable to trust his own eyes.

"Oh my God! You're actually here!" Leo shouted.

"Yuuri!" Phichit pulled the dumb-struck man into a crushing hug.

"P-Phichit." Yuuri gasped, unable to believe what was happening. Where... It felt like a miracle. They'd looked for hours yesterday and not found a single other person. A more than minor part of him had never expected to see anyone else in the hotel ever again.

"We found your note," Leo said, gesturing to the bar. The stink of stale beer wafted out from the room. "I can't believe you're actually here. Have you run into anybody else? Have you found a way out? None of our phones work. We can't even call the cops."

"Join the club," Yuri muttered.

"This is wonderful!" Victor said. His face lit up with a grin. "I had a good feeling, and now look what's happened. Now we can all work on figuring this out together."

It felt like Yuuri hadn’t seen a new face in years. He found himself openly staring at Leo and Phichit as if they were new and perplexing art exhibits.

“What’s with the axe?” Leo asked, eyeing the fire-safety tool in Yuri’s hand. Yuri narrowed his eyes in response.

“Did you guys find JJ?” Yuuri asked, almost breathless with anticipation. Phichit shot him a puzzled look.

“JJ?” the Thai skater asked. “Nooo… We did find Chris and Mila, but they’re… Well, you should probably come back with us and see.”

“What’s wrong with Chris and Mila?” Victor asked. “Are they alright?”

Phichit and Leo exchanged a grim look. Phichit hesitated, as if trying to piece the words together in his head.

“We’re… not sure,” Phichit said. Leo stared down at his hands, anxiously twisting the black handbag he held. “We think they’re okay, but… You should just come back with us and see.”

There was a long space of silence.

Yuuri glanced at Leo’s hands as he twisted round the leather handles. He blinked hard in recognition.

“Is that Sara’s bag?” he asked. Leo jumped, as if just noticing he’d been mutilating it.

“Oh, yeah. I saw it on the sofa and thought she might want it. No harm in taking it back.”

“Wait. Sara’s with you too?” Yuri interjected.

“What? Yeah. Sara, me, Phichit, then Mila, Chris, Isabella, and Samuel.”

“And Isabella?” Yuuri whispered.

“Who’s Samuel?” Victor asked.

“One of the hotel employees,” Phichit replied. “We only know his name’s Samuel because of the nametag…”

“Look, let’s head back first. I don’t like leaving Sara alone for too long. This whole place gives me major creeps,” Leo said.

“Wait, we still need to go by the kitchens, Leo.” Phichit shot Yuuri an apologetic expression. “We haven’t eaten anything that didn’t come out of a vending machine for the past day.”

“There’s a way through behind the bar,” Victor said, tilting his chin to indicate.

“I can make us something to take back,” Yuuri chimed in, showing Leo and Phichit to the service corridor. “It’ll take me a little while to make enough for ten. At least the freezers are still working.”

“Oh, actually, we just need food for six,” Leo said uneasily.

 _Why six?_ Yuuri started to say, then stopped.

The group stood partially in the open door to the kitchen, Yuuri in the lead. The young Japanese man stood rooted to the floor, lips parted in shock. Those who could see around him also stared. Yuri hissed in surprise.

In the kitchen, laid out in six of the hotel’s white bowls, sat gently steaming portions of oyakodon. The same style Yuuri had made the night before. Next to each bowl sat a bag of single-serving pretzels and a bottle of water.

Phichit looked over Yuuri’s shoulder.

“Did you already cook?” he asked, bewildered.

“Hello?” Victor called, pushing past Yuuri and stepping fully into the kitchen. “Is someone here? JJ?”

Yuuri walked, trance-like, over to the just-finished meals. The broth had the same distinctive, rich smell as yesterday. The egg hadn’t over-cooked either, so the dish must have just been laid out.

“Don’t eat it, Yuuri,” a hushed voice at his side whispered. Yuuri looked over, slightly surprised to find it was Yuri who had said it, without hint of mockery. The boy was glaring at the bowl as if he expected it to be poisoned.

Yuuri looked back at the dish. Who would try to poison them? Who’d even made this? Someone too skittish to come up a talk to them? It had to be someone who’d been watching them last night. The dish was identical to the one Yuuri’d made before.

Deciding he wouldn’t know anything unless he took the risk, Yuuri picked up a spoon and dipped it into the sauce. Victor, tearing through the pantry in search of stowaways, turned just in time to see Yuuri lift the spoon.

“ _Stoy!_ ” Victor nearly leapt across the room, trying to knock the spoon out of Yuuri’s hand. Yuuri beat him, though, and took a swallow just in time for Victor to knock into his elbow and send them both stumbling into the prep table. Broth sloshed over the edges of the bowls and dripped over the table lip.

Yuuri winced in surprise, as their collision hadn’t actually hurt. He prepared to hit Victor with his best exasperated brow-raise, but it slid away at the look of utter panic on Victor. For a wild second, Yuuri thought his lover might try and force him to throw up.

“It’s fine,” Yuri sighed, putting down the spoon. 

“What are you doing?” Victor snapped.

Next to Yuuri, the younger Russian rocked back from the argument. He hadn’t seen Victor this mad ever. This was way worse than that time last year on the beach.

“I’m working on figuring out what’s going on, Victor,” Yuuri said, deliberately calm.

“You had no idea what was in that.”

“Chicken and egg, from the way it tastes.”

“Sometimes you have bad impulse control, but I’ve never known you to be stupid.” Yuuri flinched. “That could have been anything!”

Yuuri slapped his palm down on the steel prep table and narrowed his eyes from under his bangs.

“And now we know it was just oyakodon. Someone made us oyakodon and just left it here. Somebody is _watching_ us, Victor.”

Victor’s hands clenched and unclenched at his sides. Yuuri levelled him with a cool look.

“I think Victor’s just saying it wasn’t a good idea, Yuuri. Okay?” Phichit spoke up, tone placating.

“It’s just oyakodon.”

“And pretzels,” Leo added.

“What?” Yuuri said, having expected Leo to set in on him as well.

Leo wasn’t even looking at Yuuri. He was looking past him at the pretzel bags, brow wrinkled. Reaching past Yuuri and Victor, he picked up one of the bags and brought it close for inspection. He frowned, turning the bag over. Then he wordlessly handed it to Phichit. The Thai man’s eyes went wide almost instantly.

“These are—”

“The pretzels we all ate last night,” Leo finished.

“ _C̄hạn xyāk klạb b̂ān._ ” Phichit muttered, dropping the foil bag and crossing his arms.

“Look, let’s just get back to Sara, for now,” Leo said. He looked anxiously around the kitchen. “No offense, but I don’t think I can eat anything from here right now.”

“Yeah,” Yuri added, hands shoved in his pockets. “Let’s just go.”

Phichit began to lead away, back out toward the bar and the main hall. Leo and Yuri quickly followed, and Yuuri began to as well when the uncharacteristically stormy look on Victor’s face brought him up. He wavered, already regretting what, in the terms of their relationship, had just been a major fight. The desire to apologize was nearly overwhelming, but he couldn’t think of how to word it. And then Victor was turning to leave, too, waiting expectantly at the door for Yuuri to catch up.

Yuuri swallowed down the lump in his throat. He’d have to work it out with Victor later.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> For those wondering, the few bits of not-English are all along the lines of "what," "Oh, my god," etc. 
> 
> Next Time: 
> 
>  
> 
> _“What?” Sara said, squinting at Yuuri and Victor as she tried to follow the sudden change in topic._
> 
>  
> 
> _“I hit him and then he just vanished,” Yuuri elaborated. “It was directly after. I thought, ‘I wish he’d just go away,’ and then he did. Like I’d made him disappear.”_


End file.
